• The Walt Disney Studios and Microsoft have announced a five-year partnership focused on innovating content creation.
• The companies will use the cloud to "help accelerate innovation."
• Microsoft and Disney are also working closely with Avid in relation to producing content through the cloud.
Microsoft and The Walt Disney Studios have formed a five-year partnership that utilizes Microsoft Azure and cloud computing to improve content creation. The partnership makes Microsoft a Disney Studios StudioLAB innovation partner and focuses on innovating content creation. In a Microsoft news post announcing the partnership, the company states that the partnership will "pilot new ways to create, produce and distribute content on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform."
The Disney Studios StudioLAB is a technology hub that aims to "create and advance the future of storytelling with cutting-edge tools and methods." The new partnership will see Azure and cloud computing help in this process from "scene to screen" according to the news post.
Kate Johnson, President of Microsoft US, explained how Disney and Microsoft can work together:
"The combination of Azure's hyperscale capacity, global distribution, and industry-leading storage and networking capabilities with Disney's strong history of industry leadership unlocks new opportunity in the media and entertainment space and will power new ways to drive content and creativity at scale. With Azure as the platform cloud for content, we're excited to work with the team at StudioLAB to continue to drive innovation across Disney's broad portfolio of studios."
The partnership will see Disney move production and postproduction workflows to the cloud and improve efficiency. The Walt Disney Studios' CTO, Jamie Voris stated, "Through this innovation partnership with Microsoft, we're able to streamline many of our processes so our talented filmmakers can focus on what they do best."
Both Microsoft and Disney work with Avid to create content while utilizing the cloud. Avid announced the Strategic Cloud Alliance with Microsoft in 2017 and continues to use Azure. Using various Avid technologies and Microsoft Azure, creators can collaborate, archive content, and actively backup content.
This new partnership between Disney and Microsoft moves both companies' efforts forward to innovate content creation through the cloud.
